USS Monitor Center opens in Newport News
- From: "Jack Linthicum" <jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 10 Mar 2007 03:23:01 -0800
Large exhibit of the recovered turret and other artifacts from the USS
Monitor opened Friday at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News,
Virginia. The museum is worth a trip and with the 400 year anniversary
of the founding of Jamestown occurring this spring, it is an easy
drive from anyplace on the Peninsula of Virginia.
"The USS Monitor Center's first Visitors tour the full-scale replica
of the ship Friday, which is 173 feet long and 41 feet 4 inches wide.
(Buddy Norris, Daily Press)Mar 9, 2007" Photo 4 in the Photo Gallery.
Recovery & ribbon-cutting
Nearly 10 years in the making, the opening of the new USS Monitor
Center marks the happy end of a long and often uncertain rescue
effort.
BY MARK ST. JOHN ERICKSON
247-4783
March 9, 2007, 6:13 PM EST
NEWPORT NEWS -- The USS Monitor Center opened to a robust crowd of
admirers Friday, drawing praise from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine as well as
world-renowned undersea explorer Robert D. Ballard -- who checked in
via a live satellite feed from the Gulf of Mexico.
But no one in the enthusiastic throng was more excited or pleased by
the outcome of the $30-million addition to The Mariners' Museum than
the former Navy diver who commanded the challenging expeditions that
recovered the Monitor's historic gun turret nearly five years ago.
Leading her small twin daughters by the hand, retired Capt. Bobbie
Scholley was wide-eyed and smiling as she joined more than 1,000
people Friday morning in the first public glimpse of the 63,500-square-
foot center's attractions. Like many of the other principal figures in
the more than decade-long struggle to save the Monitor's hallmark
features, then put them on exhibit, she could hardly believe the
result of her labors.
"I knew the museum would do a good job, but -- honestly -- I never
imagined anything like this when we were struggling off Cape
Hatteras," Scholley said. "I'm just so proud of being a part of what
has happened here. I think it's something that's going to stand up and
draw people in for decades."
Scholley's deeply felt response was echoed by recently retired
Mariners' president John B. Hightower, who pointedly compared the
overwhelmingly positive air of Friday's opening with the museum's
difficult 1998 decision to embrace the costly and uncertain recovery,
conservation and exhibition effort.
"We had a pretty good idea it was going to be hugely expensive. But we
didn't know then what the numbers would turn out to be - or if we
would spend them as wisely as we needed to," he said.
"Now people are coming in and saying 'Oh, my god! I had no idea!'
They're so surprised by the sheer scale of the center, the size of the
exhibits, the depth of what we've done. It's very gratifying to see
that kind of excitement - and to hear that they want to help us with
the remaining funds we need."
Nearly $10 million of the center's construction costs came from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which instigated the
epic recovery effort through its Newport News-based Monitor National
Marine Sanctuary during the mid-1990s.
Both NOAA chief Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr. and National Marine
Sanctuary Program head Daniel J. Basta spoke fervently of their
partnerships at Friday's opening, acknowledging the indispensable
roles of the Navy and Mariners' in carrying out a project that many
underwater archaeologists believed was impossible.
"I don't think anybody knew back then that it would turn out like
this. But we didn't have to know," Basta said. "The Monitor is the
iconic lynchpin of what has since become the most significant marine
heritage program in the country. So, in some ways, it was like
following water running downhill."
Still, no one disputed the shared sense of accomplishment that drew
Basta, Lautenbacher and several members of the sanctuary's expedition
team - including former chief archaeologist John Broadwater and
historian Jeff Johnston - to join with about 20 Navy divers in a
private ceremony unveiling a new NOAA historic marker.
Gathered under the immense turret lifting rig known as the "spider,"
the group laughed out loud when Lautenbacher thanked diver Capt. Chris
Murray for his pivotal role in persuading the Navy brass to let his
hardhat salvors try to save the historic vessel.
"I think we're still trying to get official permission to do it,"
Murray answered, smiling along with his comrades as the group snapped
to for a photographer's picture.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-now-monitorcenter2.m9,0,5733885.story?coll=dp-widget-news
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